HeidelbergCement puts Irvine Whitlock up for sale

Brickwork contractor Irvine Whitlock is being put up for sale as part of the break-up of the Hanson’s building products operation.

The firm’s owner, HeldelbergCement, announced last month that it would sell £1.7bn of assets to help pay off bank loans.

The disposals form part of HeidelbergCement’s refinancing plan, which involves more than 50 international lenders. It now has a new syndicated loan agreement totalling £7.3bn running until December 2011.

It had been expected to look to sell Hanson as a whole, but has decided to split it into separate businesses to make the sales more palatable for potential buyers.

The only parts to be kept will be packed products such as aggregate and cement, along with the aggregate blocks business. These will be integrated into the aggregates and asphalt, cement and ready mix concrete divisions.

A Hanson spokesman said: "The UK division as a whole is not up for sale. We’re focusing on cement, aggregates and concrete and other downstream materials."